Crazy storms and lots of snow

Be careful what you wish for! We complained when there was a drought all though December and most of January, now there is a flood and waaay too much snow and wind with so much snow in the mountains the road has been closed again...
One of our many trees on the drive fell over in one of the storms. Fortunately it didn't take too much of the drive with it and it is still passable. Bit of a big job needed to fix it up though. It has rather mangled one of the fences as well but it also is working for now.

The white lines is snow being driven at 1 million miles per hour in the howling wind

Better view in the morning

Doug has started filling it in, but will take some time.

Tax needn't be taxing (and snow)

There was some UK advert that encouraged you to do your tax return with this slogan. It was clearly nonsense as it is always v taxing finding all the stupid bits of paper that are needed!
I just went on a course to attempt to understand some of the French tax system and how it relates to renting property as we are buying a second local property to rent out and there are many many different ways you can declare for tax resulting in wildly differing tax burdens. It was very very interesting and made quite a few things a lot clearer to me - not just about tax but about how some things work generally and how French people view things.
I left Doug in La Mongie for 2 days while I was on the course and over those two days the snow finally decided to come. So much snow, that Doug was stuck in La Mongie and I was stuck in Bagnères. He had one day of wild storms and then a day of nice quiet skiing, not much open, but no-one who wasn't already in the resort could get there.
A dream for him! But I didn't regret missing the day as I am so excited about the various things that are more clear to me now!

The road was still quite snowy when they opened it!

Monné walk

Sadly Poppy generally can't come skiing with us, but she needs plenty of exercise else she gets annoying so we have to go for walks as well. Not too much of a burden in this weather!

We went up Petit Monné and then Monné which is only a little higher. We did the petit Monné walk towards the end of last year with Olli in the mist, so it was nice to be able to send him photos of what he missed!

Well deserved pizza after all that exercise!

Seville Orange Marmalade Recipe

1kg Seville Oranges
Juice of 1 lemon
2kg Sugar
1 liter water

5 or 6 500g (1lb) jars
Wax lids if you use them

Juice the oranges thoroughly so that all the pips come out and most of the membrane bits between the segments. I use my super powered juicer.

Put the pips and membrane bits in a small pan with the liter of water and boil for around an hour - while you chop up the peel. Top up if the water gets low in the pan, you want to keep it at around a liter.

Put the juice in your jam pan.

Slice the peel in to whatever size chunks you want in the marmalade - they always look bigger before being made in to marmalade so don't worry if they are not tiny.
Add the peel to the juice in your jam pan and strain the water from the pips in to the jam pan also. You can add a bit more water and boil them some more if you want. The more water you have the longer it will take to get a set, but you need enough to stop the peel sticking the the pan. The pectin from the pips helps the marmalade set.

Heat the fruit in the jam pan slowly to a simmer, it is quite gloopy at this stage and looks nothing like marmalade. Simmer until the bits of pith on the peel look translucent (that is the white bits). Add more water if it sticks - don't let it burn! Cooking for longer before you add the sugar will generally make for softer bits of peel in the finished marmalade, or cooking less long at this point will result in harder peel bits.

Once you are happy with the cookedness of the peel, add the sugar. I usually add a little less until I see how the set looks and add the rest if required. It now looks a lot more like marmalade now.

When the sugar has melted bring to a rolling boil and boil until a set is reached. Something like an hour. Google can help you with how to tell when you have reached setting point!

Put in to sterilised jars (I just run them through a hot wash in the dishwasher). Use wax discs or not as you please before putting the lids on tightly. It is a good idea to dry the lids before putting them on as drips of water will cause mould on the top of the marmalade.

New Ski Boots but not much snow

We have had our current boots for many many years. Could be 10 perhaps and they have quite a lot of mileage on them. We have been worrying for some time what to do when they wear out as we both always have a nightmare getting boots that fit. Skiing is a whole lot less fun with agony feet.
After a lot of research we settled on Dalbello boots who make boots for serious skiers and wide feet.

First trying on... I have never put my feet in to a ski boot and not been in agony, so was quite pleasant surprise.

We took them skiing for a more thorough test before heat moulding the boots and liners. The snow is very very thin as there has been no new snow since mid December. The boots were pretty good for out of the box though.

We have had many pleasant walks in the sunshine instead of skiing. Pretty cold at times.

Gosh darn pump

A small but crucial bit has broken on the pump. It is a small plastic screw that keeps the water in and the screw thread has stripped off it.
It took us many hours one evening to work out what was wrong with it - lots of trial and error and the occasional drenching with water when the bit fired out at high velocity.
We have now managed to wedge it back on with a bit of wood until we manage to get a new one. Currently busy tracking down a supplier.

Poppy has joined the Gilet Jaune

Politics everywhere are getting concerning.
Poppy has decided to join the gilet jaune. Her demands are more cheese, more steak and fewer drunken cuddles.

Happy New Year

I can't believe it is 2019. Scary stuff.
We had a lovely celebration with friends. We do get a bit grumpy about the late night at New Year, but lovely fun. Perhaps next year an early night as it has taken us days to recover.

Our beer got a bit frisky but settled down after the first few glasses and was much enjoyed.

Many amazing yummy nibbles

Pratiwi and Robin looking cute

 Bit of dancing from Terry and Kirsty

Fried breakfast with Lawn sausage and bacon (as well as a rare egg from our hens) to aid recovery on the 1st